He could not be reached for comment. Howard Kessler of Newmark Knight Frank is representing CUNY and declined comment.

Other sources say CUNY would create a new community college to act as a "feeder" to its larger four-year programs.

The small building is perfect for a school, as it is currently being used by the Katherine Gibbs School, which spent some $20 million on creating classrooms and upgrades.

Career Education Corp., its Chicago parent company, wants to gets out of its lease, which goes to December 2015, and has been unsuccessfully trying to sublease.

Hadar also owns the adjacent 43 W. 39th St. along with the 51,000-square- foot Daytop Village Building at 54 W. 40th St.

With 130 feet along Bryant Park and a slew of air rights, Foster's options in clude designing a building of up to 300,000 square feet that would canti lever over 50 W. 40th St.

The seven-story black-and-gold 50 W. 40th is an annex building to its taller neighbor, the Raymond Hood-designed, landmarked American Radiator Building, which houses the Bryant Park Hotel.

Hadar's smaller annex has 30-foot-high ceilings on the ground floor with a group of large windows overlooking the park and a number of setback terraces flocked with gold.

While not landmarked, sources say any future development would likely maintain the façade and simply build up and over the annex.

Development plans for the ultra-modern tower, which could include office, hotel and residential spaces, were first revealed by Post colleague Jennifer Gould Keil last month.

A year ago, Hadar bought out his father, Richard Hadar, from the buildings. His parents are divorced and his mom, Margery Hadar, is the Brown Harris Stevens agent marketing his breathtaking $26.25 million city apartment on E. 65th St. with 360-degree views.

The new CUNY lease is part of a larger strategy for Allied Partners. The company has spent the last decade acquiring surrounding air rights and buildings, including the acquisition this summer of 54 West 40th Street. With close to 300,000 square feet of developable space, Allied Partners is working with the British architect Norman Foster on the design for a mixed-use project that would build on top of 54 West 40th and cantilever to the 50 West 40th Street building. Construction, however, is unlikely to take place for a number of years.

Recall that the buildings located at 1041 6th Avenue also were demolished recently and a 350,000 sf hotel/residential will be built there. Therefore, this immediate area will see three buildings in 550 to 700foot range.

^
There's also a fourth local highrise assemblage at 6th Ave. and 39th street. The entire block is owned by one entity.

The assemblages directly on 6th (the one at 39th and the previously referenced one at 1041 6th) have huge air rights and can be built extremely tall. One could build much more than 350,000 ft. on either site.

^
There's also a fourth local highrise assemblage at 6th Ave. and 39th street. The entire block is owned by one entity.

The assemblages directly on 6th (the one at 39th and the previously referenced one at 1041 6th) have huge air rights and can be built extremely tall. One could build much more than 350,000 ft. on either site.

The local nimbies will never allow anything taller than 300 feet or so on the Bryant Park's south side. They'll say that it will eternally block all of the park's sunlight, or something along those lines. They've flipped out at the prospect of a 250 foot tower on the same block, so if this Foster tower wants to see the light of day, it better have MAJOR financial and political backing.

If they can build as of right, the NIMBYS have no say -- as was the case with Extell's 1,000 foot tower which will cast shadows over Central Park. 350,000 sf will be pretty tall if it's a hotel or residential.

The local nimbies will never allow anything taller than 300 feet or so on the Bryant Park's south side. They'll say that it will eternally block all of the park's sunlight, or something along those lines. They've flipped out at the prospect of a 250 foot tower on the same block, so if this Foster tower wants to see the light of day, it better have MAJOR financial and political backing.

The tower would be as-of-right, so the NIMBYs would be irrelevent.

The other development site (14 West 40th) with all the NIMBYs is on a landmarked lot. This site isn't landmarked; hence no public review.

Well, this is good news. Still, expect a ton of whining about evil developers stealing all of the sunlight and turning New Yorkers into Mole People forced to live on eternally dark streets.

On a related note, this project would further congest Bryant Park, which is already one of the busiest public spaces in the city, if not the country, for better or worse (such congestion has positive and negative tradeoffs for everyone involved).

They're building above this low-rise masterpiece which is an annex to the utterly magnificent American Radiator Building. Recall that Foster also designed the Hearst Tower which is a 50 story "addition" built above an old masterpiece.

Foster would replace the building at right and cantilever over 50 West 40th.

By Matt Chaban
November 17, 2010

Quote:

Two years ago, renowned British architect Norman Foster was tapped to design an underground expansion for the New York Public Library, a project that has seen little movement since it was first revealed. Foster + Partners may now be working on something above ground at Bryant Park as well, albeit it of an equally speculative nature.

The Post's Lois Weiss got word that Eric Hadar is in talks with Foster for a 300,000-square-foot office/hotel/condo project of some sort built on an assemblage of properties on West 40th Street, on the south side of the park.

Weiss' sources suggest that two of the buildings would go, while a third, an annex to the landmarked American Radiator Building at 50 West 40th Street, would likely be preserved in some capacity.

The L-shaped lot also includes 54 West 40th Street and 43 West 39th Street, with 50 West 40th located at the crux of the site. Though majestic, the building is not currently landmarked. The decision to preserve it anyway is a worthy one, though it probably also helps stave off an outcry.

This is familiar territory for Foster, as his best-known building in the city is the Hearst Building, the crystalline tower on 57th Street that rises from the historic six-story base of the original Hearst headquarters. Foster is also familiar with the challenges facing this latest project, having contended with preservationists and annoyed neighbors on his 980 Madison addition and the still uncertain timeline on his 2 World Trade Center tower.

Similar challenges appear to be facing this project. Weiss reports that at the same time Hadar is negotiating with Foster, he is also in talks with CUNY to put a new community college into one of the buildings that has already been built out as a school, raising questions about when or even if the new building would get built.

And yet this could simply be a shrewd move on Hadar's part, getting the building occupied and generating income in the short-term while he goes through the city's onerous approval process. Plus, construction financing limited as it is right now, this project probably won't be beaking ground for years.

Still, the possibility is tantalizing. Hopefully this isn't the last we'll be hearing of this project, as well.

This is a VERY small footprint, and therefore, a 300,000 sf hotel/residential might very well be over 700 feet tall. For example, the planned hotel on B'Way and 51st has about 300k sf and will be 751 feet tall.

So let me get this straight, the light colored skinny limestone structure will go or it and the large taller brick structure on the corner too?

Would be nice if Foster would just incorporate the limestone building as the base of the tower similar to Hearst. You would think that Foster, being a civilized Londoner, would oppose the destruction of a structure with so much architectural dignity.

I belive that the building on W39th Street would be demolished and that the tower would be built on its lot and will cantilever over the American Radiator's seven story annex. If the plan is to raze the limestone tower, then I hope that it fails.